Our Creators

AUGI II

A/N: hiya demigods 🐢🐢🐢🐢🐢🐢🐢💕

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I ducked and rolled as the monster swung at me with its club, obeying instincts I didn't even know I had. Springing to my feet, I registered the fact that I still had Briar's dagger in my hand. But what the hell was I supposed to do with that thing? It wasn't like I knew how to fight with a dagger. I didn't think they ever taught us that in school, but maybe I just hadn't been paying attention. I was seriously ADHD. Dyslexic too.

Briar started yelling something, but then the Earthborn swung at me again. Suddenly, everything came into sharp focus. Time slowed down. I started noticing details about my opponent that I didn't even realize I was noticing. (Wrap your head around it. It made sense in my mind). When the Earthborn raised its arm to swing the club down at me, it unwittingly exposed a (hopefully) sensitive spot: its armpit. And I had another advantage over it: I was pretty quick on my feet, and it was slow and clumsy.

The club sped towards my skull. Without thinking, I darted beneath it, jabbing the dagger into the Earthborn's armpit. This only half worked. The good news: I didn't get bashed into a messy pancake. The bad news: the dagger stuck.

The Earthborn roared and flailed its arms. I yanked at the dagger, trying to avoid being smashed, but the dam thing wouldn't come out of the Earthborn's armpit. Briar was yelling something that sounded like "Leave it!" But I couldn't. This dagger belonged to my friend, I couldn't just leave it to be crushed.

Then several things happened all at once. The Earthborn swung at me, catching me across the chest and flinging me backwards into the air. My left hand, which had been clutching Briar's dagger, locked; and the force behind the hit caused the weapon to be yanked - roughly - out of the Earthborn. I was fleetingly aware of an explosion of dust, Briar's yells, and a wrench of pain in my left shoulder before I hit the water with a smack and sank below the surface in an explosion of bubbles.

It all happened so fast, I forgot to hold my breath. I gasped, partly from shock and partly from pain.

And the water didn't enter my lungs.

I almost died of shock. Cautiously, I took another breath. It worked. I opened my eyes. I could see as clear as day.

What the hell? I could... could I breath underwater? And see underwater?

Woah. This was where I drew the line, dude. Breathing underwater? No way. I was most definitely dreaming.

But then, I'd never actually been swimming before. Like other than in a bathtub. Mom didn't really let me go anywhere. And I'd never tried breathing underwater, because the very notion was ludicrous.

Yet, there I was, floating around in the murky, polluted water of Long Island Sound, my friend's dagger clutched in my hand, and I was breathing.

Just then, it occurred to me that Briar probably thought I was dead. I kicked upwards, and my head broke the surface in a matter of seconds. I found myself about fifty yards offshore.

The Earthborn was nowhere to be found. Briar looked like he was contemplating going in after me, tearing his hair and running back and forth on the beach in a panicky sort of way, kicking up sand with his hooves. On a sudden inspiration, I ducked back underwater before he could spot me and struck out for the shore, being careful not to splash.

The water swirled gently around me, almost like it was parting to let me through. I felt strangely invigorated, and comfortable. Like I was home. The pain in my shoulder had vanished as quickly as it had come.

Weird.

The floor of the Sound sloped gently upwards, and I wasn't forced to stand up until I was about three meters offshore, and the water was above my knees. Here the ground sloped upwards sharply, flattening out like a plateau at the waterline.